By Nacogdoches Miller

Sun Intern

Editor’s note: Heart of Clark is a new bi-weekly feature that will run each Wednesday and Friday throughout the summer. The series focuses on recognizing the people, places and programs at the heart of our community.

The Southwest Clark Neighborhood Association is a group of individuals from within and beyond the Winchester area working to cultivate new ideas, emphasize historical value and boost economic value in the community.

After forming in 2014 during a skirmish over the expansion the Allen Company Rock Quarry, the association has grown to 75 members cumulatively working to preserve and promote that are of the county.

The group’s mission is “to work with officials, county, city government, whoever in order to highlight things of importance in the area, as well as to protect our property owners as much as possible when it comes to the threat of heavy industry and other types of development in the neighborhood,” Deborah Garrison, president of the organization, said.

Garrison said the neighborhood association repurposed flood lands to make rain gardens, partnered to get historical markers placed and is currently funding a study to help guide the economic future of the area.

One of the first projects the group worked on was the creation of the Rain Gardens located at Capt. Billy Bush Park. Once the site of a trailer park, the land was seized by FEMA after multiple years of flooding to prevent anyone from rebuilding there.

The county got the land back, and with the help of groups like the neighborhood association, the county is repurposing it into areas people can safely enjoy.

Working with local historian Harry Enoch, they group has worked to establish four historical makers across the county.

The purpose of the markers, Garrison said, is to emphasize the historical value of the area.

The association’s most recent project led them to researchers from Eastern Kentucky University, working to study the economic impact paddlers and canoers have on the Kentucky River and the area around it.

Using a grant from The Greater Clark Foundation, the group funded a project to measure the increased activity of people on the river since the closing of locks which left an absence of larger vessels traveling on the river.

Over the summer those enjoying the river and areas around it will have a chance to fill out a survey about their time and activities.

James Maple, an associate professor in EKU’s sociology program, performed a similar study on the Red River Gorge last year regarding the economic impact climbers had in the area.

“We ask them a lot of questions like, how much money did you spend, where did you go, where did you go to eat,” Garrison said.

The survey also asks what visitors are looking for when they come into the area for lodging and food.

The goal for the Southwest Clark Neighborhood Association is the same as the Gorge, to get as much information as possible on how visiting parties affect the economic surroundings, and what the area can do to increase economic growth in the future.

“They’re really bringing an economic impact to our area, so we want to highlight that and study it,” Garrison said.

The study ends in November.